Co - Authoring

The Co-authoring feature allows multiple users to work on one document at the same time by assigning a particular zone to be worked on by each author.

For this purpose, there are few additional roles available for Co-Authoring review:

  • Owner-Contributor (review owner in Co-Authoring review receives this role automatically instead of the ReviewOwner role)
  • Contributor (a user who can be assigned as a reviewer for a particular zone in the document)
  • Author-Contributor
  • Super-Contributtor
The steps below demonstrate how to create a review for Co-Authoring:
  1. From the Collaborative Authoring module, click the Add button on the top ribbon bar.
  2. Select the Review Type: Co-Authoring , enter the title, review duration, and add participants.
  3. Select the users and specify their roles from the Participants section.
  4. Add documents from the Documents section.
    Note: Only .doc files can be separated on Edit/Review zones for Co-Authoring.
  5. Click Save.
    When a review is created, the document is placed in the Pending folder under Co-Authoring.
    Important: As a contributor, you cannot start the Co-Authoring review upon its creation (the related checkbox is not available for Co-Authoring review). This is because before a review can get started, the owner contributor must go to the PleaseReview and assign zones in the document to the specific contributors.

As an owner contributor, to assign zones to each contributor, locate the newly-created co-authoring document and click the Pin icon on the button under document section.

Upon opening the document, click the specific zone to be assigned to each contributor. Screenshot

Under the Selected column, put a checkmark next to the name of contributor assigned for this particular zone in the document. Then click OK.

Repeat this process for other contributors as well to assign them to each zone. After you are finished with assigning zones, exit PleaseReview by clicking the Exit button located on the upper right corner.

Once zones are assigned, the owner contributor must start review manually. Click on Start Review button on the screen. Then, the document will be moved to the In Progress folder for contributors to work on their assigned zone.

If you are a contributor to a document and want to work on your assigned zone, locate the document placed under the In Progress folder for Co-Authoring, and click the link. Then, you can simply click the particular section of document that you are assigned to as a contributor, and download the document for that section only. Screenshot

Make the appropriate changes and save the document. Screenshot

Then go back to the PleaseReview screen and browse the saved file. Click Upload.

If it is final and no more editing is required, click Publish and close the window.

After all contributors are finished with their assigned zones, as a owner contributor, you can close out the review by following the same process as in Co-Review.On review closeout, the reviewed documents are published to eTMF as new documents as shown above in Co-Review.